Vegas Hockey Knight
Fansided

Vegas Golden Knights: Three key ingredients for postseason success

By Andrew Steele-Davis

William Karlsson #71 of the Vegas Golden Knights is congratulated by teammates. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
William Karlsson #71 of the Vegas Golden Knights is congratulated by teammates. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
Robin Lehner #90 and Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Robin Lehner #90 and Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Vegas Golden Knights. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

2. Elite Goaltending

You can’t win championships without elite goaltending.

That statement rings just as true today and you only need to take a look back at the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Playoffs for proof of that.

Jordan Binnington, playing in his rookie year for the St. Louis Blues, posted a .914 Save Percentage and a 2.46 Goals Against Average in 26 games, including making some clutch saves in the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins to help the Blues win their first championship in franchise history.

Go back to 2014 when the LA Kings rode the hot hand of Jonathan Quick, who had a .911 Save Percentage and a 2.58 Goals Against Average in 26 games to help the Kings become the first-ever No. 8 seed to win the Stanley Cup.

So, in a nutshell, you need to have hot goaltending throughout the postseason, coupled with a goalie that can come up clutch time and time again.

That’s where the Golden Knights are in luck.

Not only do they boast a future Hall of Famer in Marc-Andre Fleury, they will also have the services of Robin Lehner for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Robin Lehner #90 of the Vegas Golden Knights makes a save against the Buffalo Sabres.
Robin Lehner #90 of the Vegas Golden Knights makes a save against the Buffalo Sabres. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

You can make a very strong argument that no team has a better goaltending situation than the Golden Knights heading into the postseason, and that lethal one-two punch between the pipes could pay absolute dividends.

Fleury, despite having an up and down regular season with a 2.77 Goals Against Average and a .905 Save Percentage, is a cold-blooded killer in the Playoffs and his resume speaks for itself.

Then there is Lehner who, despite only having eight postseason starts under his belt, has been one of the more elite goalies in the NHL over the last couple of years and was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy in 2018-19.

While Fleury will no doubt be the undisputed starter in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it will be invaluable to the Golden Knights to have Lehner waiting in the wings should they need him.

Time and time again it has been proven that you need hot goaltending in order to succeed in the postseason, and the Golden Knights will enter the most important time of the year with two elite netminders at their disposal.

Home/Analysis